All disquiet on the northern front Already wounded by exchange rate and White House bombast, North Dakota business community caught in cross-border trade war nervous ahead of Trump's Fargo rally By: Adam Treusch Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Tuesday, Jun. 26, 2018

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This article was published 25/06/2018 (2377 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FARGO, N.D. – Next week, Canada and the U.S. will celebrate their national holidays with barbecues, beer and fireworks, but despite the similarities, the two nations haven’t been further apart in decades.

Earlier this month, in a span of only 10 days, the Trump administration imposed tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum and hurled harsh insults at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In a tweet after leaving the G7 summit in Quebec early, U.S. President Donald Trump lashed out at Trudeau, calling him “dishonest and weak” before his top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, said “there’s a special place in hell” for Canada’s PM.

Trump will speak Wednesday at a political rally at Scheels Arena, a 5,000-seat hockey venue in southwest Fargo, roughly 360 km south of Winnipeg. Simon Wilson, executive director of the membership-based North Dakota Trade Office, said he hopes Trump avoids rhetoric about Canada. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 83.9 per cent of North Dakota’s exports — nearly $4.9 billion worth — went to Canada last year.

"We kind of hope he dials it back," Wilson said. "We’re not counting on that, but that would be a dream goal for our organization."

For Fargo and Grand Forks, cities that have already hosted significantly fewer Canadians shoppers and visitors in recent years, the insults after the G7 summit were unwelcome. Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney said the business community was “very upset.”

“We weren’t too happy about that,” he said. “We regard Canada as our ally, and we think we need to treat our friends well. I think you need to have serious people sit down and have a frank discussion about what needs to be done, if there’s issues.”

Wilson, a dual citizen who grew up south of Ottawa, said Canada is like "family" to North Dakota.

"We don’t like any of this,” he said. "We’ll have little disagreements, but this is not how we deal with it. We don’t want tariffs. We don’t want artificial barriers. We want to buy Canadian products and from Canadian suppliers without tariffs, and we want to sell the same way."

Business leaders in Fargo and Grand Forks said it’s too soon to tell whether a Canadian boycott of U.S. products in response to the tariffs and the Trump administration’s rebuke of Trudeau will have an effect on cross-border visits from Manitobans. According to an Ipsos poll earlier this month, 70 per cent of Canadians say they’ll explore ways to avoid buying American products because of Trump’s tariffs.

“I personally don’t think it’s going to help. I mean, it’d be crazy to think it’s going to get better,” said Charley Johnson, president of the Fargo-Moorhead Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Based on all that’s happening, I don’t think Canadians will be coming back in droves anytime soon, until all this stuff gets resolved.”

John Pelletier was at West Acres mall in Fargo with his wife Tuesday, on their way home to Winnipeg after travelling to the Black Hills in South Dakota. He’s not boycotting the U.S., but said he doesn’t like how Trump is treating Canada.

“I think what Mr. Trump is doing is trying to screw up everybody and hold all the other countries down. He wants to grab everything for himself, for the States, which is no good,” Pelletier said. “I’m sure a lot of the American folks don’t agree with him. Some of them do, but some don’t. Especially close to the international border, it doesn’t help anybody.”

Barry Wilfahrt, president of Grand Forks’ chamber of commerce, said Canadians make up about 15 to 20 per cent of the area’s retail sales and 20 to 25 per cent of its hotel stays. He said the main reasons fewer Manitobans have been shopping in North Dakota the past five or six years are the weak Canadian dollar and, to a lesser extent, Winnipeg adding some new retail stores.

“That’s had a significant impact,” Wilfahrt said. “With the exchange rate where it’s at, we have seen a decrease in the number of people coming down, and we’ve also seen a decrease in how much they spend when they’re down here, too.”

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Ottawa says Canadian travellers to North Dakota spend $160 million annually. In May, 22,443 regular vehicles — excluding semi-trailers and buses — entered North Dakota through the Pembina border crossing, compared with 21,986 the previous year, an increase of 2.08 per cent. The May 2017 numbers were down 13.18 per cent from 25,325 the previous May.

In March, the Fargo-Moorhead Convention & Visitors Bureau, area hotels and West Acres teamed up for a promotion to entice Winnipeg travellers with discounted hotel-room prices matching the Canadian dollar. The mall, which says Canadian make up less than five per cent of its shoppers, contributed gift cards. About $10,000 was spent promoting the deal in Winnipeg, which resulted in roughly 200 room nights being booked on weekends that month.

“Everyone involved is interested in doing it again,” Johnson said. “I’m not sure when we will, but it worked out pretty well.”

adamtreusch@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @adamtreusch